3. Governors Island was Home to the World’s Smallest Railroad
In 1918, the U.S. Army built a set of train tracks that was only one and a half miles long. Stretching from the pier to the warehouse, the line consisted of three cars used for carrying machinery and supplies. According to a 1931 Railroad Trans Magazine, this railroad was equipped with a regular crew, including a dispatcher and a track foreman.
You can see a map of the railroad tracks and historical images on this blog. There were actually three tracks that ran across the island and spurred off toward different buildings. The train relic scene above was unearthed on the island in 2014 while work was being done to create new stormwater outÂfalls.